About August 17
August 17, 2021 is the 229th day of the year 2021 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 136 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Tuesday.
You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.
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Leo is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Peridot is the modern birthstone for this month. Diamond is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 168 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
What Happened On August 17
- 986 –A Byzantine army is destroyed in the pass of Trajan’s Gate by the Bulgarians under the Comitopuli Samuel and Aron. The Byzantine emperor Basil II narrowly escaped.
- 1807 –Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
- 1862 –American Civil War: Major General J.E.B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
- 1863 –American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.
- 1907 –Pike Place Market, a popular tourist destination and registered historic district in Seattle, opened.
- 1915 –A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 mph.
- 1943 –World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission.
- 1945 –Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
- 1960 –Decolonization: Gabon gains independence from France.
- 1969 –Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.
- 1970 –Venera Program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus).
- 1978 –Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
- 1979 –Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156.
- 1982 –The first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.
- 1988 –Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
- 1998 –Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an “improper physical relationship” with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he “misled people” about the relationship.
- 1999 –A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
- 2005 –The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.
- 2008 –American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals in one Olympic Games.
- 2009 –An accident at the Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia, kills 75 and shuts down the hydroelectric power station, leading to widespread power failure in the local area.
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